Multi-pre-modulator projection designs with a single-chip prime modulator can achieve high contrast performance from a broadband illuminator in a compact package but are not as efficient as multi-chip prime modulator designs due to the reduced duty cycle of high brightness light. For example, in some algorithms, image content to be displayed can be analyzed to optimize illumination sequence duty cycle to maximize the brightness of displayed content. However, such algorithms are limited to processing an entire image as the analysis affects the illumination modulation duty cycle, thus affecting the entire image. As a result, they have limited usefulness as any image with multiple saturated primary colors limited the duty cycle adjustment possible, especially when the image contained saturated primary colors of maximum brightness. Furthermore, while duty cycle adjustment can be used to optimize brightness of a single saturated color (e.g. red) but if two or more saturated colors appear (e.g. red and green) then duty cycle adjustment to optimize brightness is constrained.